The Future of the Net

Fuzzball963 writes "Kevin Kelly has an interesting article over at Wired on the development and future of the web. In it, he argues that in ten years the desktop OS will become obsolete in favor of a Web based one, and that content on the web will be automatically customized according to the device being used to access it (PDA, smartphone,etc)." From the article: "Today the nascent Machine routes packets around disturbances in its lines; by 2015 it will anticipate disturbances and avoid them. It will have a robust immune system, weeding spam from its trunk lines, eliminating viruses and denial-of-service attacks the moment they are launched, and dissuading malefactors from injuring it again. The patterns of the Machine's internal workings will be so complex they won't be repeatable; you won't always get the same answer to a given question. It will take intuition to maximize what the global network has to offer. The most obvious development birthed by this platform will be the absorption of routine. The Machine will take on anything we do more than twice. It will be the Anticipation Machine."

Comments

Kevin Kelly is so wrong, he's not even wrong.

[Ralph Spoilsport]

1. By 2015, my computer will still have its OS on its hard drive. Why? BECAUSE PEOPLE WANT THEIR DATA LOCAL. If it's up on the web somewhere, then I have to PAY some megacorp (tm) to house it. If I stop paying or my cheque gets lost in the mail - poof - 10 years of work up in smoke? I. Don't. Think. So. I'm using a brand new Windows box, which is my temporary replacement for my dead G3 (which is now a smoking heap of plastic cladding - long story). When I get a MacIntel box in 2007, I expect to own it as long as my G3 wich I bought in 1998. So, 7 years + 2007 = 2014, and I'm going to expect the machine I buy to replace the Macintel in 2014 to have *at least* the same usability and dependability as the G3 I bought in 1998, just as I expect as much from the MacIntel in 2007. I paid (too much) cash for that machine then and I expect much the same in 2007 and 2014 or 2015, so I expect the data and OS to be MINE in my OFFICE - not floating on some rented server farm in Redwood City.

this reminds me of Oracle Boy's ranting about "net computing" back in the 1990s and the "thin client" and how everyone will just have dumb terminals on their desk. Guess what, Battee boy? Ain't Gonna Happen.

2. KK says Today, at any Net terminal, you can get: an amazing variety of (SNIP)

Net Terminal. WHERE THE FUCK is the nearest "Net Terminal"? I don't have a Net Terminal. I have a computer on my desk. It does a fuckload more than cruise the web. The nearest "Net Terminal" I know of is at an Airport, and it costs a fortune to use and it won't burn a disk for love or money, so any data you find in it, stays in it. KK is ASSERTING that the case exists already, in his typical arrogance, and then continues with his phantasmic vision from there. Dumb ass.

3. He then splutters "There is only one time in the history of each planet when its inhabitants first wire up its innumerable parts to make one large Machine. Later that Machine may run faster, but there is only one time when it is born.

You and I are alive at this moment.

What utter hogwash. Messianic cybernetic totalist hogwash. Cheerleading balderdash. I find such attitudes so utterly deserving of my undying contempt and ire that I find it difficult to find the words to describe just how profoundly idiotic and self-serving I find such ejaculations to be.

OK, KK - I can make predictions too. Try these:

In 2015, the United States is at the height of its Cold Civil War, and the thanks to the unmitigated disaster of the Bush Cheney Regime, the American Economy is no longer able to absorb the cost of $200 a barrel oil and the suburbs that the preceding century of cheap oil spawned. There are wide spread black outs, and the USgov declares martial law, effectively ending the era of the American Republic. The internet does gain greater depth, but is pushed to the periphery of human concerns as the population continues to bulge and food riots break out in South Asia. Owning a computer becomes less worthwhile as one only has power fora few hours a day. Refrigeration becomes problematic in the summer of 2015, as unemployment officially hits 11% (but everyone knows the numbers are bullshit, because it only counts people receiving their 3 months of unemployment insurance - the actual number is closer to 50%) and in October 2015 there is a massive demonstration on the Mall in DC. A lone protester stands in front of an M1 Abrams tank. The tank tries to go around him, but he moves to block it. Unlike in Tienamen Square, our hero (now designated a "terrorist") is shot dead from a helicopter gunship - several dozen rounds rip through him and he literally explodes in front of the Tank, which then proceeds to roll over his remains and goes on to squish the protest flat.

In 2016, the United States Government, unable to make the payments on its debt of $42 trillion dollars, declares bankruptcy, and dissolves. It splits up, much like the soviet union did 25 years prior. Kevin Kelley flees to europe to escape the disaster.